Happy Birthday, Henry!!!

Today was Henry's birthday. Our little boy turned 1 year old. It has been quite a year. Most babies triple their weights from birth to 1 year. Henry is about 14.6 times the size that he was when he was born. He has amazed us in so many ways. And we simply can't imagine our lives without him.

Unfortunately, Henry spent much of today sleeping as it appears that he has come down with a cold. He spent from 4AM to 5:45AM tossing and turning. He was incredibly snuffly when he woke up. And spent all day with a drippy nose. I gave him his bottle at 5:45AM. He fell asleep on me after eating. He didn't sleep long though. Veronica came at 7:30AM as usual. After I left, Henry apparently spent the morning sleeping and sneezing. This afternoon when I got home, we had cake. Veronica had made a vegan cake for Henry, because she knew he can't have dairy. She researched it on the Internet; her girls (Chiara, 6, and Brianne, 2) and husband (Chris) helped decorate it. They also gave Henry a gift...an Elmo toy cell phone. Perfect gift. Henry gets upset when Grammy won't let him play with her cell phone. This morning, Henry had a lot of fun pushing buttons on our wireless telephone while talking to Aunt Erin, who had called to wish him a happy birthday.









Jeff had the good sense to suggest that Henry open his present before tackling the cake. That was a good call. I remember awhile back that Cuyler (Henry's first OT) had said that she knew kids would be good eaters if they had messy first birthday pictures. Well, judge for yourself with these...



After Veronica left, Jeff gave Henry a bottle. He fell asleep during it. Then, Jeff's cell phone went off (problems at work as usual). So Henry woke up. He finished his bottle for me and wanted a little more. Then, he fell asleep on my chest for well over two hours. He hasn't done that in such a long time.

In the evening, we headed to my parents' house and went to Sauce for dinner. They have a nice patio area outside. They had a nice high chair for Henry that allowed him to put his hands (and feet) on the table. Henry's a strong believer in casual dining!









We went back to my parents' house for dairy-free, soy-free cupcakes. Henry was pretty full from eating squash at dinner. He got to open a present. We are waiting until Sunday for his other gifts. On Sunday, we are having a family dinner to celebrate his birthday. We decided not to have a full out birthday party for him, because we want to wait until his "due date" day to have a 1 year adjusted celebration. We'll probably have a BBQ or something like that and invite our family and friends. We think that's better for him for two reasons. First, it will be August by then and RSV won't be an issue. Second, developmentally, he'll be 1 year old and therefore more able to enjoy a celebration at that time.










On Monday, two things happened. First, much to our disappointment, Veronica gave us notice that she'll be moving to Texas at the end of May. Given the rather tough employment situation in town, her husband Chris is rejoining the Navy. We are incredibly disappointed that she'll no longer be Henry's nanny. Henry is quite fond of her. She is a gentle person and is incredibly good at getting Henry to relax and take naps (which he rarely does for me). In addition to missing her, neither Jeff nor I are excited about having to conduct interviews again. When we interviewed people the first time around, we realized that not every nanny out there is sane. Plus, the recent rounds of bad nanny videos posted on cnn.com has hit home that the world is not a safe place.

Second, we had a visit from Dorsett. Henry clearly knows how to get up the stairs, so Dorsett was trying to show Henry how to safely get down the stairs. Dorsett is very fond of Henry. She thinks that he is rapidly catching up to his chronological age (much faster than preemies usually do). That said, Jeff and I are still of the opinion that there's really no reason why preemies should catch up to their birth ages and maintain that adjusted age is where he should be evaluated. If Henry always tests appropriately at his adjusted age, we will be ecstatic. If, for example, when he is 5 years old (birth) but acts like a 4 year, 8.5 month old, that's OK with us. And when he is 45 years old (birth) but acts like a 45, 8.5 month old, that's going to be OK with us too. Although Dorsett is a PT and has been working on his motor skills, she is most impressed by his verbal patterns. And, she was excited that he got excited when she asked him if he wanted to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song (his new favorite).

I do think that he actually comprehends quite a bit. But unfortunately, he doesn't have the ability to speak or sign yet. I've been asking him where certain animals in the house are and have noticed that his eyes do seem to lock on the appropriate pet. The two that he knows best are Bitsy Cat and Roger. If you say "Where's Bitsy Cat?", he'll look for her and then stare at her. I think that he also knows Princess and Marley, but not quite as well as Bitsy and Roger. He sort of knows Jackson. But Jackson is our sensitive cat who is rather reclusive (he lives in our closet), so Henry simply isn't as familiar with him. Interestingly, I think that Jackson is one of the best with Henry because when he's in the mood, he will go up to Henry's head and nuzzle him. Henry doesn't point yet and that will be a better test of his word-object comprehension.

Tuesday was the day of many outfits. It iseems like we went through several. After talking with Cuyler on the telephone, we decided to give Henry a teething biscuit. Cuyler recommended the Gerber ones because they are really thick and thus less likely to break off in the baby's mouth. We are trying to get Henry used to the feeling of solids in the mouth. One problem is that most of the teething biscuits have milk or soy in them. We decided to go ahead and use the Gerber ones that we bought, because we didn't think that he'd really be consuming them to the point where he'd inject enough for it to affect his digestive system. I gave one to Jeff to model for Henry. Then, I gave one to Henry. Incidentally, Henry did manage to break off a piece. Don't know how he did it. He must have jaws of steel, because those things are rock solid.










Jeff lowered Henry's mattress in the crib, so that Henry can't fall over the rail now that he's standing up. This meant that the cat prevention tent no longer works. The cats enjoyed playing in the test once it was off the crib. To the left is a picture of our girls (Marley, Bitsy, and Princess).


We took a picture of Henry with Frosty the Bull (Henry's first toy). There was a time when Henry wasn't much bigger than Frosty.

Henry is bigger than Frosty, but he has a ways to go before catching up with our dog Roger. Roger unfortunately seems to be unaware of his posterior and nearly sat on Henry several times throughout the day.

Henry wasn't in much of an eating mood last night. He rejected mashed avocado and mashed pears. Cuyler told me that babies often reject new foods, especially when offered the second time around (the novelty has worn off, but the good isn't accepted yet). So we continue to work on offering textures. I did give him a few pieces of spagetti (no sauce) to play with. He didn't put them in his mouth; he just dangled them.










Last night, I kept thinking about how a year ago on April 29, we had no clue about what was to come. I was feeling very tired at the time. Delivering Henry the next day wasn't even on our radar as a possibility. Frankly, we were unaware that it was possible for such young ones to survive. It has been an amazing but also very difficult year. Henry is amazing. But being a micropreemie means that we have to stay on the look out for problems that often arise as the children get older.

The other day, a friend called me to tell me that she is pregnant. During the course of our conversation, she said to me. "Henry was 25 weeks, right? So I just have to make it until then." I actually didn't know what to say at the time as I was a bit stunned by the comment. If, through this blog, we have given the impression that this is an easy route or that things are peachy-keen, then we have perhaps done a disservice to micropreemie awareness. This was certainly a route not taken by choice. Babies need to stay in the womb for 37 weeks (or close to 40 weeks) with good reason.

NIH has a website on extremely preterm birth outcomes: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/org/cdbpm/pp/prog_epbo/epbo_case.cfm

Based on Henry's birth characteristics:
Gestational Age (Best Obstetric Estimate in Completed Weeks): 25 weeks
Birth Weight: 570 grams
Sex: Male
Singleton Birth: Yes
Antenatal Corticosteroids: Yes (although they were only present for about 1/2 hour before his birth, so this one is debatable)

Outcomes	Outcomes for All Infants	Outcomes for Mechanically Ventilated Infants
Survival	57%	60%
Survival Without Profound Neurodevelopmental Impairment	39%	41%
Survival Without Moderate to Severe Neurodevelopmental Impairment	22%	23%

Henry is doing incredibly well from where he started. That said, if I had a billion dollars and were given the opportunity to rewrite history, I would trade that billion dollars in a heartbeat if I could give Henry the birth that he should have had. I pray everyday that he will continue to be the exception and not the rule when it comes to micropreemie development.

This time last year, Henry was in the NICU. I was in intensive care too. Jeff spent that first night with me (on a rather uncomfortable fold out chair in my room). At this point, we actually hadn't named him yet (we thought that we were going to have another couple months to make a decision). I'll ask Jeff to tell that story in a day or two.

Cheers to Henry Joseph, our 1 year old, sweet, feisty, inquisitive, stubborn, affectionate, chatty, happy, strong, loving, "big" boy. We are very proud to be his parents. And are very lucky and blessed to have him in our lives.